Rejection: Fiction
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION • A NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
"A master comedian with a virtuoso prose style has produced an audacious, original and highly disturbing book . . . an incandescent satire." —Giles Harvey, The New York Times Magazine
From the Whiting and O. Henry–winning author of Private Citizens (“the first great millennial novel,” New York Magazine), an electrifying novel-in-stories that follows a cast of intricately linked characters as rejection throws their lives and relationships into chaos.
Sharply observant and outrageously funny, Rejection is a provocative plunge into the touchiest problems of modern life. The seven connected stories seamlessly transition between the personal crises of a complex ensemble and the comic tragedies of sex, relationships, identity, and the internet.
In “The Feminist,” a young man’s passionate allyship turns to furious nihilism as he realizes, over thirty lonely years, that it isn’t getting him laid. A young woman’s unrequited crush in “Pics” spirals into borderline obsession and the systematic destruction of her sense of self. And in “Ahegao; or, The Ballad of Sexual Repression,” a shy late bloomer’s flailing efforts at a first relationship leads to a life-upending mistake. As the characters pop up in each other’s dating apps and social media feeds, or meet in dimly lit bars and bedrooms, they reveal the ways our delusions can warp our desire for connection.
These brilliant satires explore the underrated sorrows of rejection with the authority of a modern classic and the manic intensity of a manifesto. Audacious and unforgettable, Rejection is a stunning mosaic that redefines what it means to be rejected by lovers, friends, society, and oneself.
"Rejection is unrelentingly brutal and gut-bustingly funny and spares no one—not you, not me. Tulathimutte is a pervert and a madman and a stone-cold genius." —Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties
“One of the foremost fiction writers exploring the subject of his own generation.” —Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker
BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
Beautiful technically-skilled writing. This is one of those books where you can almost forget you’re reading fiction because there’s such a talent here for immersing you in the minds of these strikingly real characters. Having so many memorable lines & moments makes this a great choice for annotating.
Very psychological and heady, so if you don’t like that, there you go. If you do, I couldn’t recommend it more. This might honestly be an essential Millenial book. The worldwide loneliness epidemic we continue to struggle with to this day originated in their generation, and loneliness is so commonly a consequence of real, perceived, and/or anticipated rejection, as shown in these stories. So because of how deeply this collection explores that major defining characteristic of the generation, and explores how access to both the earliest and most modern forms of the Internet impact this social behavior, I think this is a good contender for the title.
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.